Master of Engineering (MEng)

MEng Materials Science and Engineering with Nanomaterials

Explore nanomaterials, with a direct impact on all aspects of modern life.
  • Duration: 4 Years Full Time
  • Year of entry: 2025
  • UCAS course code: F206 / Institution code: M20
  • Key features:
  • Scholarships available
  • Accredited course

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Fees and funding

Fees

Tuition fees for home students commencing their studies in September 2025 will be £9,535 per annum (subject to Parliamentary approval). Tuition fees for international students will be £38,000 per annum. For general information please see the undergraduate finance pages.

Policy on additional costs

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

Scholarships/sponsorships

The University of Manchester is committed to attracting and supporting the very best students. We have a focus on nurturing talent and ability and we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to study here, regardless of your financial circumstances.

For information about scholarships and bursaries please see our undergraduate fees pages and check the Department's funding pages .

Course unit details:
Equilibrium Thermodynamics

Course unit fact file
Unit code MATS15201
Credit rating 10
Unit level Level 4
Teaching period(s) Semester 1
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

This unit introduces the fundamental concepts, tools, conventions and calculations of thermodynamics that are used in materials science. The topics in this unit are designed to show how disorder and energy, in all its forms, can be used to predict the stability of materials and to determine whether there is a driving force for them to change. 

Aims

The unit introduces how we measure energy and order in materials, and how to use those values to predict how materials can be made, changed and broken down.

 

Learning outcomes

A greater depth of the learning outcomes will be covered in the following sections:

  • Knowledge and understanding
  • Intellectual skills
  • Practical skills
  • Transferable skills and personal qualities

Teaching and learning methods

Watching and understanding pre-recorded (asynchronous) lectures, attending and participating in live (synchronous) lectures, completing formative assessments associated with pre-recorded lecture components, participating in anonymous formative quizzes run within lectures, working with peers and graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) during tutorials (problem sessions) and practical laboratories, consulting recommended textbooks, complementing recommended resources with web resources, reviewing general and personal feedback on assessed coursework, completing questions on past exam papers, reviewing recorded lectures, working with current and previous members of the year group in  peer-assisted study sessions (PASS).

Knowledge and understanding

a. Contrast the different ways that energy is quantified in thermodynamics and be able to explain which is most appropriate to use for a process or transformation.
b. Define how disorder and energy determine the stability of materials.
 

Intellectual skills

a. Define fundamental thermodynamic quantities such as enthalpy, entropy, heat, work and free energy, and show their mathematical relationships to each other using words and symbols. 
b. Calculate values for heat required, equilibrium composition, etc. for chemical and phase changes.
 

Practical skills

a. Identify single-component materials based on calorimetry results.
b. Simulate corrosion in simple metallic systems.
 

Transferable skills and personal qualities

a. Apply techniques for estimating the results from calculations.
b. Apply techniques to calculate propagation of uncertainty.
 

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written exam 70%
Report 30%

Feedback methods

Feedback given (written/oral).

Recommended reading

  • “Atkins’ physical chemistry” P.W. Atkins and J. De Paula, 2010, 9ed, Oxford University Press: Oxford. (Editions 5 and later are fine.)
  • “Biological thermodynamics” D.T. Haynie, 2009, 2ed, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
  • “Phase transformations in metals and alloys” D.A. Porter and K.E. Easterling, 1992, 2ed, Taylor & Francis Group: Boca Raton. (Edition 3 is less good.) 
  • “Engineering mathematics” K.A. Stroud and D.J. Booth, 2007, 6ed, Palgrave Macmillan: Basingstoke.
  • “Student’s solutions manual to accompany Atkins’ physical chemistry, ninth edition” C.A. Trapp, M.P. Cady, C. Giunta and P.W. Atkins, 2010, Oxford University Press: Oxford. (Editions 5 and later are fine.)
 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 20
Independent study hours
Independent study 80

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Aleksey Yerokhin Unit coordinator

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